KB Home residents concerned about safety

MANATEE COUNTY - Residents in an east Manatee County community say they've been living in deplorable conditions for months, some for years, due to the poor construction of their townhomes.

While KB Home works to correct the construction problems, Willowbrook residents want to insure their own safety.

Just last week, Senator Bill Galvano visited Willowbrook for himself. He saw the mold, the collapsed balconies and the inside of homes taken over by construction.

“He had serious concerns about our health with the houses that have mold, with houses that weren't structurally sound, with houses that were deemed unsafe by the county, so he went back and set up a meeting with the surgeon general and George Glance, the president of KB Homes,” says Armando Delgado, Willowbrook HOA President.

According to a press release from Galvano, that meeting was effective and he encourages property owners to pursue professional mold testing, and he was assured by KB Home that residents whose homes require intrusive repairs will be relocated at no cost to them.

But Delgado says that's not been the case. “The frustrating part is that when they talk it's all good, when it makes it down to the field, you talk to the guy in there now and he says no I'm not relocating anybody.’

Delgado says only a few residents have actually been relocated while their homes undergo the repairs, and according to them, it was a fight to get it. “Nobody will help us. We've talked to the state's attorney, we've talked to everybody and they all just say you need to get a lawyer.”

Now, Delgado says these houses are far from homes, and he can only hope for better. “You can see from the outside in and they're saying if it's intrusive, well what's the definition of intrusive? We need a clear definition. We don't need these broad terms. If it’s life threatening, get the people out. In my opinion we shouldn't have to deal with this, we didn't cause this problem, so because we didn't start it, I'm sorry KB, sorry you have to foot the bill.”

Homeowners in the Willowbrook townhome community say they expected Manatee County's building inspectors to catch any mistakes during construction. Instead, the KB Home property is riddled with problems, from structural damage to water intrusion.